Janet Planet
Description
In 1991, the summer before middle school, Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) brims with questions and gripes. Tightly bonded with her unmarried mom, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), she’s slowly moving from her parent’s orbit into her own, and this remarkable debut from prize-winning playwright Annie Baker portrays this shift with careful intimacy and a wonderfully askew visual eye. Living in rural Massachusetts, Lacy’s days are languorous but not without incident — she has piano lessons, races around the mall with the daughter of Janet’s boyfriend, and attends an odd outdoor theatrical headed up by a semi-guru type named Avi (Elias Koteas). The film is remarkably astute in illustrating how adolescent self-awareness builds from small life experiences and careful observation of adult behavior, and Ziegler perfectly captures the churning of Lacy’s brain and emotions. As Janet, Nicholson is equally astonishing, ever-so-slightly dissatisfied with her life but always there to be the gently listening ear for her unique child.
Janet Planet marks playwright Annie Baker’s feature debut. Among her works for theater are Body Awareness (2008), her first play produced Off-Broadway; Circle Mirror Transformation (2009) and The Aliens (2010), which shared an Obie award for Best New American Play; an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (2012), The Flick (2012), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; John (2015); The Antipodes (2017); and Infinite Life (2023). In 2017, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Film Details
LanguageEnglish
Year2023
PremiereCalifornia
Runtime113
CountryUSA
DirectorAnnie Baker
ProducerDan Janvey, Derek Tseng, Annie Baker, Andrew Goldman
Executive ProducerRose Garnett, Eva Yates, Chelsea Barnard
WriterAnnie Baker
EditorLucian Johnson
CinematographerMaria von Hausswolff
CastJulianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas
Print SourceA24
Closed CaptionsClosed Captions are confirmed for this program
Audio DescriptionAudio Descriptions are confirmed for this program
American Sign Language (ASL) InterpretationAmerican Sign Language Interpretation is not currently scheduled for this film
